The Ombudsman for Human Rights and Justice, Virgílio da Silva Guterres, held a Meet The Press to update the media and the public on the progress of the Provedoria dos Direitos Humanos e Justiça (PDHJ). The event focused on the PDHJ’s ongoing efforts to protect human rights and promote good governance, highlighting the crucial role of media in these efforts.

The Austrian National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) published the English version of its Annual Report 2023. In the year under review, the NPM carried out 505 visits, which provided a picture of the human rights situation in Austria. In addition to positive observations, numerous deficits were identified again in 2023.

The Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson, Mr. François Boileau, made a service improvement request to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in March 2024, asking it to make changes to prevent an issue blocking callers from reaching the CRA during its contact centres’ regular hours of service.

Le 16 août 2024, le protecteur du citoyen, M. Marc-André Dowd, a transmis une lettre à la ministre responsable de la Solidarité sociale et de l’Action communautaire, Mme Chantal Rouleau. Il y commente le projet de Règlement modifiant le Règlement sur l’aide aux personnes et aux familles. Le but du projet de loi est d’instaurer un supplément à la prestation équivalant à 10 % des revenus de travail qui dépassent le montant permis sans diminution de la prestation.

On 21 August 2024, the Office of the Veterans Ombud (OVO) released its publication Spotlight 2024: Progress Update on OVO Recommendations to VAC. The recommendations made by the OVO address systemic gaps and barriers to fair access by Veterans and their families for VAC services and benefits. 

After receiving complaints about the Department of Home Affairs’ application of refund provisions relating to Visa Application Charges, the Commonwealth Ombudsman, Iain Anderson, has published his investigation report on the matter, ‘Righting Refunds’ on 13 August 2024.

The Queensland Ombudsman’s report, Forensic Disability Service – second report: A review of the implementation of recommendations made in the 2019 Forensic Disability Service report, was tabled by the Honourable Curtis Pitt MP, Speaker of the Queensland Parliament on Tuesday 13 August 2024.

The NSW Ombudsman has tabled a special report titled Investigation into inmate discipline in NSW correctional centres in Parliament on 21 August 2024. The report follows an investigation involving a systemic examination of how inmate discipline is managed across all correctional centres. The inmate disciplinary system deals with inmates who are alleged to have committed a ‘correctional centre offence’ while in custody.